Pacific Spiketail Cordulegaster dorsalis,
femaleThese are digital images of a female Pacific Spiketail that landed on the
leaves of a plum tree in our
yard and ate the yellowjacket she'd caught.
Note that she perches using all 6 legs and eats her prey without
needing their use!
At the time of this posting, this is new late flight season data for the
species in California.
Data: September 19, 2002. Sebastopol, Sonoma Co., CA. [edge between
lowlands coastal valley
and coastal hills]
picture #5 - eating the yellowjacket
pictue #8 - finishing the yellowjacket
picture #11 - resting nearby (note that she now is clinging to a branch).
It seemed unusual to me that just the leaves would support her well enough
while she ate the yellowjacket earlier.
Links to more images of this same Spiketail:
picture 1,
picture 2,
picture 3,
picture 4,
picture 6,
picture 7,
picture 9,
picture 10,
picture 12